Global Neighbor Interviews: Digital Nomad Views On Americans

What makes you happy?

What is your greatest hope for future generations?

What do you wish others knew about your country?

Do U.S. policies or culture affect you?

The goal of our Global Neighbor Project interviews is to see if we can draw connections between human beings who live a world apart.

Thanks to the help of our readers, we came up with a short list of questions to ask the people we meet in each of the 10 countries we’ll visit during our 10th year of marriage. We have no idea where this project will lead us. We just felt that our world was suffering from disconnection, and we wanted to do something about it.

Click here to get insider updates on our Global Neighbor Project.

Our very first set of interviews took place in Barcelona in the days following the Catalan vote to secede from Spain, when the streets were periodically filled with demonstrators proudly wearing flags. It was a stark reminder that the U.S. is not the only nation bearing the burden of division, and perhaps we’ll cover that historic event as a separate story in itself later on…

We were gathered in Barcelona for an annual conference with other digital nomads like ourselves. With just one week and a packed agenda, we opted to ease ourselves in to the project by interviewing our international friends at the conference rather than try to wrangle in local strangers.

We had a great time, and we’ve already learned a lot from our first set of interviewees. Here’s a very brief intro:

Magdalena Zettl – a native of Germany who currently lives in Barcelona

Audrey Julienne – a French teacher and entrepreneur from Lyon, France

Vivienne Egan – an Australian digital nomad who lives part-time in the UK

Sienna Brown – an American living in Spain

Our first video features these four location independent women as they share about the topic I (Michelle) was most interested to hear: how the U.S. afffects other countries.

Global Neighbor Interview Video

How do US policies and culture affect other countries?

You’ll see more pieces of these interviewees in future videos, as we continue to compile responses and make connections across cultures. In the meantime, here are a few quotes that stood out to us from the other topics they discussed:

“The first thing I wish North Americans knew about France is that France is not a city. It’s not Paris. There are a million other places in France that are beautiful and that really deserve attention.” – Audrey, France

“In Australia right now – as in a lot of places – we’re quite divided, along the lines of social conservatism and social liberalism, generally. What I would like is to see less of that division and a little bit more of people coming together and a little bit more compassion.” – Vivienne, Australia

“What I really like when Americans travel is that they’re really open and they don’t judge a culture.” – Maggie, Germany

 
If we had to summarize a few themes we’ve detected from our interviews so far it would be these:

– People across cultures find happiness in sharing life with other people, in nature, and in their favorite hobbies.

– Many nations are contending with stark ideological divisions at the moment.

– People want their countries to be known for more than its cliches. France, Germany, Australia, Italy – they’re more diverse than their stereotypes and have much more to offer visitors than the big name cities you always hear about.

– The global perception of American culture is not always bad, in fact, people who come from countries steeped in history and tradition find American culture as a source of encouragement to step outside the mold.

 
As we continue to do these interviews and see where they take us, we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Did anything surprise you? Do you connect with any of the sentiments shared by our interviewees? Do you have suggestions for future interviews and stories?